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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 11/03/1993MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 CONFERENCE ROOM - 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. NOVEMBER 31 1993 For Reference: Bill Miller, NRAB Chair - 493-7693 Chris Kneeland, Council liaison - 221-2950 Tom Shoemaker, Staff liaison - 221-6263 Boardmembers Present Bill Miller, Will Smith, Phil Friedman, Tim Johnson, Hal Swope, Katy Mason, Lisa Howard, Craig McGee Boardmembers Absent (excused) Terri Knudsen Staff Present Tom Shoemaker, Julie Bothwell, Jim Clark, Steve Olt, Greg Byrne, Rick Ensdorff Guests Present Geoff Weatherford, Environmental Learning Center/CSU; Cindy Pastelak, Chamber of Commerce Avvroval of Minutes It was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved that the Minutes of the October 6, 1993 NRAB meeting be accepted as written with the following changes: (1) on page five, in the discussion of the Neighborhood Compatibility Study, Smith stated that his comments were that the portion of the study regarding neighborhood input is appropriate and valid, but only minor changes were made to the LDGS. (2) Johnson stated that on page seven paragraph eight, "pryesented" should be "presented." New Business Consideration of Water Demand Management Measures Jim Clark, Water Department and Steve Olt, Planning Department were present to hear feedback from the Board on proposals to implement Demand Management Measures Eight and Nine of the Water Demand Management Policy. In April of 1992 Council passed the Water Demand Management Policy. The policy included specific goals for reducing per capita water use along with mandating the implementation of twelve specific water conservation measures. Measure eight states, "Amend the residential and non-residential Point Charts within the Land Development Guidance System to include water - conserving actions in the awarding of points." Measure nine states, "Develop minimum water conservation standards for irrigation systems associated with landscape plans for all development which is subject to City review and approval." It includes only commercial and multi -family developments. E4 Clark stated that 835 million gallons of treated water are used annually in Fort Collins to irrigate the landscapes of multi -family and commercial developments. To arrive at an estimate of the amount of water saved by these two measures, the following assumptions were made: (I) new commercial and multi -family development includes 30 acres of irrigated, landscaped area per year; (2) commercial and multi -family developments are irrigated to an average depth of 33 inches per year without implementing measures eight and nine; (3) the two measures result in a 5-20% reduction in water use. With these assumptions, 1.34 to 5.38 millions gallons of water would be saved per year by implementing the two measures. Clark stated that what is most significant to the Water Utility from a cost perspective is saving on peak demand. The following assumptions were made to arrive at the corresponding reduction in peak daily demand: (1) the peak daily landscape irrigation depth for commercial and multi -family developments is 0.30 inches; (2) the two measures result in a 5-20% reduction in the peak daily irrigation depth. With these assumptions the best estimate is that these measures would result in savings of $27,500-$110,000 per year. Clark said that the primary expense of implementing the measures would be the cost of administration, approximately $7,500 to $12,000 per year. Smith stated that he was supportive of mandatory options, fees assessed to the developer, and using contract employees to administer the measures. Smith asked if the committee's recommendation regarding the total area for each landscape category encourages nonplanted areas such as additional paving. Clark answered that this is always a concern when trying to promote water conserving landscaping, but the measures do not create an unintended incentive to bypass landscaping requirements by including more paved areas. Swope stated that he was also supportive of the mandatory options, the developer fees, and use of contractors. Swope asked if any consideration was given to eliminating the amount of turf grass in proportion to the building size. Clark answered that it was considered. The committee chose to take a more proactive approach towards proposing alternative landscaping instead of a lot of bluegrass. Mason also agreed with Smith. She stated that the LDGS point charts do not work well in promoting energy conservation and she does not want this to follow that example. The LDGS changes should make water conservation mandatory, instead of including it as an option in the point chart. Olt stated that was not true. He stated that not all the criteria are optional in the point chart because an applicant has to achieve 50% of the points. He said that staff has been trying to figure out which way works best, whether it can be optional, similar to energy conservation criteria, or if it really needs to be mandatory. Some of the criteria on the point chart are mandatory. 2 Clark stated that some of the landscaping measures were thought of as incentives and they do not work when made mandatory. He said if the Board wanted to look at that specifically, that input would be appreciated. Miller stated that if the City is going to promote the concept of xeriscaping and water conservation, then there is a need to break the traditional habit of planting bluegrass because "it looks pretty, •it's easy to mow, and its uniform." Smith said that the Water Utility should raise rates to achieve conservation. Clark said this was an excellent point and noted that these measures address just a fraction of the total water demand. He also noted that these measures are oriented toward "what gets put into the ground" and not how the landscaped areas are managed once they are in place -- people can still overwater. Miller asked how the rates would be applied. Clark answered that it is unknown at the present. Swope moved and Johnson seconded that with regard to Water Demand Management Measures a and 9, the NRAB recommends mandatory options, fee assessed to the developer option to cover costs, and use of contract employees for administration. Smith said he would like to see how the mandatory option would be put into effect. The motion was passed unanimously. Johnson added that he would like to note that water conservation programs like this could supply the water that is being asked for by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to meet endangered species concerns downstream. Miller stated that water conservation could also provide some of the water needed to meet minimum streamflows for a fishery. Old Business Discussion of Growth Management Issues and Work Program Greg Byrne, Community Planning and Environmental Services (CPES), and Rick Ensdorff, Transportation, and Tom Shoemaker, Natural Resources, were present to discuss the Growth Management Work Program. Shoemaker stated that CPES is doing some different things with respect to programming the work related to growth management. There are a lot of projects in the Council's Policy Agenda that relate to Growth Management, so staff has been making a concentrated effort to reorient their approach to the projects in a more integrated fashion. They are bringing in resources from Planning, Transportation, and Natural Resources to organize the work to a sensible work flow. Byrne stated that CPES is assigned a lot of Council's Policy Agenda items and it occurred to staff that a lot of them could be brought together under Growth Management. Staff then looked for affinities and divided them up into four areas: Land Use, Transportation, and Air Quality (LUTRAQ); the F Corridor between Fort Collins and Loveland; Neighborhood Issues; and Growth Management. Ensdorff explained that the LUTRAQ group is made up of staff from Natural Resources, Transportation, and Planning. Those three key elements need to be looked at in an integrated fashion at a pace that allows for progress in one element without allowing the others to fall behind. LUTRAQ projects are supportive of, and dependent upon, each other to really implement the City's policies. Ensdorff stated that the group is focusing on a Congestion Management Plan (CMP), which is required by the Federal government for communities that are not attaining air quality standards. In the CMP, Fort Collins is more than just meeting the Federal guidelines, it is also looking at City policies as they relate to traffic congestion and air quality, and blending that with land use. Ensdorff stated that one of the key things is to define where we are in relationship to the AQPP which states that the community needs to implement strategies to slow the growth of VMT. Staff has done some modeling with some land use projections; the numbers in 1990 were approximately 1.7 million VMT per day. The projection for 2015 is 3.5 million VMT, an 84% increase. The population at the present is 90,000 and is projected to be 150,000 in 2015. The model gives them a baseline, in the CMP, they will be looking at how other scenarios will impact those numbers. Ensdorff.stated that we have a policy that deals with congestion for our streets to operate at a "level of service D", and no worse at peak traffic hour. He stated that if you take this model and run it on a street network, serious congestion problems result. He noted that the baseline modeling only includes improvements from the Choices 95 Capital Improvement Program. Ensdorff stated that the CMP committee has defined two critical policies; air quality and congestion. The committee will look at different land use scenarios to see how different modes splits, more transit and more bikes would impact congestion and air quality, and then start looking for what types of solutions to use to meet the policies. Ensdorff stated that staff has modelled different growth scenarios and growth patterns. He said though it may not be the solution, a sprawl scenario has the most impact on air quality and congestion. Smith stated the AQPP and the Transportation Plan both have specific objectives. These are two points that are hard edges in driving the study, but we do not have anything that is a hard edge for land use considerations. Byrne stated that is why the land use component is being included and why, when you start to model this, you need to have some information that is fairly credible about how peoples' transportation behavior changes under certain land use assumptions. Smith stated that he thinks Transportation is driving the whole thing and that it puts certain land values in the backseat. Byrne stated that he disagreed and that land use is driving the whole thing. He said, "we are constructing an urban form that we will be forced to service with a transportation system for the next 50 years." 4 Ensdorff stated that one of the key elements of the model is land use. They built that up to be credible and then the output from the model is the traffic numbers in VMT. Once they get that credible data, they change the land use element of the model to see how the air quality and transportation outputs change. He stated that the next step for the CMP group is to look at some alternative land use patterns. Johnson asked why the work program is not getting at some of the costs that are added indirectly due to growth. He feels we are missing something if we do not get at the cost of development. Byrne stated that the financial element of it is really critical in every aspect. Byrne stated that what they found in the first phase of the cost of development study was a "checkbook mentality" about fee structure. The City has these costs and collects these revenues. Do they match pretty well? The answer is yes. Johnson stated that he gets a sense that staff is trying to get at the large picture, but is deliberately avoiding determining what the cost of growth is. He asked if this will be included in Phase II soon, or will it be delayed for some unknown time. Shoemaker stated that staff is trying to respond to very specific directions from Council. Johnson stated that one of the items on the work program is to initiate Phase II of the Cost of Development Study. People have been looking towards getting a handle on these numbers for a long time (ever since the Chamber said development pays its own way), but clearly what happened in Choices 195 was that growth has not been paying its own way. Johnson stated that the study could examine the costs of streets and schools and factor this into the growth patterns that have occurred around the city, so that growth does pay for those things, and citizens do not have to be asked for a 1/4 cent tax increase to pay for it. McGee stated that he went to the Growth Management Seminar in October and came away with the realization that there is not a real good comprehensive plan for how development is going to occur. There are a lot of pieces, but not really anything that ties them together. Friedman stated that the purpose of doing a study is to come up with answers to a problem and then use those answers to solve the problem. He wanted to know what was the purpose of doing a Cost of Development Study. If they do complete one and get valid answers, what will be done with those answers? If the study shows that for every thousand dollars of development in this town that the City spends $1,500 to provide the infrastructure, will we immediately impose a $500 impact fee for every $1,000 worth of development? Byrne answered that, theoretically, you could. They found in the first phase that the municipal services that were being provided collected enough money to pay for them, with a few specific exceptions. There were a lot of policy issues that rose out of it that were not addressed. The policy issues are where Council wanted to go with the project. Friedman stated that his concern with a Cost of Development Study is that there is no sense in going through any kind of exercise to come up with hard answers to a question unless you are willing to tackle the results. The results may be entirely unpredicted, or the opposite of what was hoped for. There could be three answers to a Cost of Development study; 5 that the City is losing money; making money; or it is a "wash." Each one of those scenarios has to have some type of approach and some type of plan, but he does not see that happening. Ensdorff extended an invitation for any boardmembers to join the Congestion Management Group. 1994 Work Program Completion A draft work plan was included in the Board's packet. Boardmembers will review their committee's workplan and submit any comments or changes to the committee Chair by November 9. The Chair will then submit the changes to staff by November 10 to be merged into one document. The Board will make final comments at the special meeting. Special Meeting. November 17. 1993 The meeting to finalize the 1994 workplan was changed to November 22, 1993, at 6:00 p.m. Staff will find a meeting location. Other Business Johnson stated that there was a proposal for 4,200 acres to be exchanged by the State Land Board for other land to a California developer to develop a downhill ski resort in Seven Utes. He stated that the County Commissioners sent a resolution expressing their concern to Governor Romer and the Land Board and he would like Council to do something similar. Shoemaker commented that Council asked for input on the issue from the Water Board and the Natural Resources Advisory Board. Council asked for a recommendation from its Legislative Committee, leading toward a resolution on the November 16 meeting agenda. Johnson moved and Mason seconded that the NRAB express its concern to Council and recommend that Council send a letter asking Governor Romer and State Land Board to reject the proposal of Seven Utes. The motion was passed unanimously. Johnson would like to express in the letter that, "last year the citizens and the State voted very strongly for GO COLORADO to preserve land such as this." Johnson will draft the letter. AnnounCements Miller stated he will be part of a presentation at Chamber of Commerce offices on November 9, 1993 at 7:30 a.m. The presentation will outline the efforts of the NRAB, the CSU Environmental Learning Center, and the Environmental Clearinghouse. McGee announced that the Poudre Riverwalk committee met and there was diverse interest in the riverwalk. A third of the committee is concerned about development aspects and commercialization of the riverwalk. He stated that Hendee was looking to garner broad support for Council funding the feasibility study. Shoemaker announced that Knudsen resigned. She will be moving out of town for a new work assignment. Council will appoint a new member November 16. M Smith announced that there were vacancies on t the Transportation Board and the Parks and Recreation Board. A letter was presented to Swope thanking him and the Fairway Estates Homeowners for the steak fry before the October 6 meeting and congratulating them on a job well done with the mitigation funds. Adiourament The meeting was adjourned at 9:40. The City of Fort Collins will make reasonable accommodations for access to City services, programs, and activities and will make special communication arrangements for persons with disabilities. Please call 221- 6600 for assistance. YI